shades of blue that glimmer from her tail.
I apologize if I scared you. I didn’t realize it was you following me, I tell her.
I am sorry. I didn’t mean to follow you. I haven’t seen your other form before, and I didn’t know it was you, she explains. I love the little blush that appears on her cheeks after her comment.
I was circling the realm looking for weaknesses the enemy might try to use. Swimming in that form, I can do it a lot faster.
I can see how your dragon form propels you through the water very quickly. It is beautiful to watch… I mean, mesmerizing… I mean…I…I’d better go! she blushes and starts to turn away.
I reach out and grab her arm.
Wait, don’t go.
I’m sorry, I must. I have other places I need to visit. I will see you later. She turns and swims off as fast as her fin can go.
This was the first time I had seen her since the day of my arrival. It’s a shame, since I haven’t really gotten to speak with her to find out what type of goddess she is. The idea that she loved my other form so much that it mesmerized her, made her stumble over her words and then blush makes my attraction to her all the more powerful. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts of the intriguing Leia, I set out to finish circling the realm and taking note of all the spots we need to address in the next meeting with Poseidon. I will make a difference here, and I will do so to make my father proud and help Poseidon and the others in this war. I just have to wait until this is over before I even consider chasing after the beautiful Leia. Seeing her fired up at Rita the first time I met her makes me want to grab her now before someone else notices what a beautiful, fiery spirited goddess she really is.
Chapter 6
Leia
Natal dragged me to dinner that night. She said it was time to quit hiding out. I know she was right, plus I really needed to find out as much as I could about what the next step was in preparing for the war to come. Yet, I was still hesitant about seeing Tane again. It seems like every time I see him I am making a fool of myself one way or another.
I walk in the door and see everyone already seated around the table with father at the head and Rita on his left. Delphine is seated next to her with the head sentry guard next to him, on his right is Proteus, and next to him is Tane. I blush when I see him looking up at me. I was a complete mumbling fool when I saw him earlier. There are two seats open next to Tane, so Natal grabs my arm and walks me around the table to the open seating. She practically shoves me into the seat next to Tane. I see him about to stand before I am shoved the rest of the way in the seat. She takes the other open seat next to me at the end. Now she is on the other side of my father where I normally sit.
I look over at Tane. He gives me a small smile and nod as he goes back to eating. A servant comes over and starts to fill my plate along with Natal’s. She is already flirting with the sentry guard and he is looking starry-eyed at her. Not really paying attention to their conversation, I start to slowly eat, though I’m not hungry. I also listen to my father and Delphine go back and forth on possible enemies that would want a war. Proteus offers ideas as well. Then my father asks what they should consider the next step. Tane puts down his fork, “I did a perimeter sweep around the realm today, and there are a lot of weak spots that we need to fill in.”
“Weak spots? What do you mean?” my father asks him.
“For starters, I had half of the guard go further out from the edges of your realm, so if they see something, they can alert us in advance of a pending attack. We also need more sentries to swim between the weak spots until we are able to recruit more allies or have the myr-families in the realm alert to the possible threat that we are expecting.”
“I prefer my myr families to be left out of this.”
“I understand why you would want to; however, you are also putting their lives in danger if they don’t know what to expect.”
“I can tell when someone enters my realm; there is no need to have them on alert.”
“It is great that you can tell when someone enters. Can you tell who it is?”
“No, but if there is a threat toward me, I can tell. They have a different energy I can pick up on if they bring bad intentions toward someone in the realm. That is why we are not bothering myr-families here.”
“Father, I agree with Tane. They have all heard rumors. It will help to have extra eyes on the lookout, plus it will calm their fears to know we are doing everything we can to keep them safe.”
“Leia, there is no reason for you to worry or fear for the myr here. We have this handled between us, so there is no reason to drag others into this situation and cause a panic.”
His stubborn ass will never see that extra help and eyes on the upcoming war would be helpful. The almighty Poseidon can take care of everything. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Leia,” I mock to myself. Yeah, sadly it doesn’t matter if they are a young myr or my supposedly old father; men are all the same and think they can handle everything on their own. I want to throw my plate at his head and see if he can see it coming as well.
All of a sudden I feel a warm hand on my knee and it squeezes me reassuringly. I look to Tane and he gives me a strong nod as if he is agreeing with me. I give him a shy smile, feeling my cheeks turn red. He removes his hand and I can still feel the heat where he had squeezed, making my whole body tingle.
My father, Proteus, and Delphine continue talking. I just keep quiet and listen the best I can while they murmur in low tones.
Soon, dinner is over, and everyone is getting up to leave. Of course, father is leaning toward Rita, speaking softly in her ear. She smiles and acts coquettish; she has a smirk on her face. She turns to the rest of the group as she is still listening to my father whisper in her ear and I lock gazes with her, raising my left eyebrow to let her know I will not stand for her to hurt my father again. My facial expression must have said even more, because she loses her smirk and I see her swallow hard. She nods ever so slightly to me as if she understands.
I turn to leave and feel a hand grasp my own. Tane leans to my ear and whispers, “May I escort you back to your rooms?” I smile and nod to him. I wrap my hand around his large bicep, feeling him flex at my touch, and let him lead us out of the dining room. I see Natal notice us leaving together and she gives me a small smile that says “told you so.” Instead of coming with me to my chambers as our normal evening ends, she grasps Delphine’s arm and walks in a different direction.
We walk in silence back toward my rooms. We aren’t far from them when he finally speaks for the first time.
“I am happy you agree with me.”
I look at him, my mind wandering through different thoughts about his large muscles and how they could wrap around me. From the touch that still lingers from him squeezing above my knee at dinner, plus realizing how much taller he is than me, it took me a minute to realize what he was talking about. I school my features and respond.
“Thank you. My father is a stubborn, hardheaded fool who thinks he can take care of everything on his own.”
He smiles at me then, a large, beautiful smile that reaches his eyes and shows off the dimples he has in his cheeks. Wow, I thought the man was gorgeous before, but when he smiles like that there is no other who can compete
